9 Biggest Media Markets Without an MLB Team

David Gonos 10:47 pm, July 15th, 2016

Major League Baseball hasn’t expanded in nearly 20 years, if you can believe that, but they’re starting to warm up to the idea of expansion once again. So we thought we’d do some advance scouting for some possible spots for new teams by looking up the nine biggest media markets without an MLB team!.

"Maybe one of the reasons I got this job is, I'm bullish on this game. I think we are a growth business, broadly defined. And over an extended period of time, growth businesses look to get bigger. So yeah, I'm open to the idea that there will be a point in time where expansion may be possible." – Rob Manfred

We’re definitely due for some expansion, if we go by how the sport has grown over the past century. In the ‘90s, we added four teams, including the Rays/Diamondbacks (1998) and the Marlins/Rockies (1993). Before that, the Mariners and Blue Jays joined in 1977. It was in the ‘60s, though, where the league really blew up, with the Angels, Senators, Astros, Mets, Royals, Expos, Padres and Brewers came into the picture. That’s eight teams added in one decade, two in another, and then four two decades later.

Basically, baseball has added two teams per decade since the 1960s. So we’re due for at least two more! Rumors are that the following teams are expansion possibilities: Montreal, Charlotte, San Antonio, Portland (OR), Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, New Jersey, Mexico City or Monterrey, Mexico.

Instead of looking at the largest cities by land mass or by population, we chose to break it down by the largest media markets.

9 Biggest Media Markets Without an MLB Team

Unlike other sports, Major League Baseball has pretty much always been a sport that has been played in big cities. I wrote a piece last week about 11 Cities You Didn’t Know Once Had a Pro Sports Team, and only a few of them were baseball teams that played in small cities.

We also decided to come up with some mascots for these media markets – just in case they’re looking for ideas!